Tooth and Claw
by The Asylum of the Devitory
Summary: A young Zangoose finally gets to fight in a Seviper hunting party, but what was supposed to be his boyhood dream turns into an unforgettable adventure. Violence, blood, cursing, y'know, the Asylum standard
1. Chapter 1

Tooth and Claw

Ch. 1

I hated them. Those scaly, slithery, conniving little bastards made my hairs stand on end at the mere thought of them. Those piercing red eyes, those razor-blade tails, those villainous bloody fangs- they're devils, I'd tell you. I'd tell you how many times I dreamt as a kit about growing up big and strong like my father one day, able to fight those detestable abominations on the fields, the marshes, or anywhere we'd find them. I had heard all the stories of our wars, from the day our ancestors crawled out of the sea to the day I stepped foot onto the frontlines on that one fateful day. I'd tell you how long I yearned to be able to nimbly dodge their lunging fangs and their swinging tails, slashing their bodies to bloody pieces with my large claws. You weren't considered an adult- no, not even a fellow Zangoose, until you had drenched your hands in their blood on the battlefield. My claws were itching, I tell you. Itching to shred one of those Sevipers beyond recognition. I couldn't wait. I spun in circles around my family's burrow for hours on end on the morning of my first- and last, strike.

I think this is where I should start my story.

"Calm down, Zimmy," my mother had told me for what seemed to be the millionth time as I darted back and forth between the walls of our burrow.

"Now now, dear," my father spoke up, pausing to stuff a chunk of Seviper flesh in his maw, "the boy's just excited about the hunt today. I remember my first hunt," he said, gulping down the half-chewed meat noisily. "God I miss the screaming…"

"It's not a hunt, dad," I said in between frantic breaths, "it's a war!"

My father only chuckled quietly. "You're not quite ready for one of those yet, son," he said. "No, this is small stuff compared to the battle for Tauros Hill. In fact," my father paused to chomp down some more Seviper meat, "my record still stands, last I checked. Thirty-nine kills in two hours. Zim, you'd need to be in at least fifty of these hunts to be ready for a real war."

"Aw, c'mon," I whined.

"Oh let him believe it's a war," my mother insisted, "When I was his age, I thought my first hunt was a war too."

Suddenly, a piercing cry echoed throughout the burrow and reverberated through the ground. "There's the call!" I shrieked, bolting up to the entrance of our burrow. "Mom, Dad, I'll bring back the fattest, juiciest one of them for us tonight!"

"Good luck hunting, Zimmy dear," My mother called after me.

"And remember!" My Dad shouted as I darted for the field, "the jugular! The jugular!"

-

It had been like this for generations. How or why was long forgotten centuries ago, now all that mattered was kill or be killed. I, along with the rest of our small party, stood at attention as soon as our field Marshall made himself visible from the tall stalks of wheat on the vast prairie before us. "Listen up, you fur-wrapped shit factories," he barked in our faces as he walked to one end of our assembly and paced down towards the other, "It has come to my attention that we've got ourselves a handful of snot-nosed, numb-nut babies with us on today's hunt." The Marshall glared at the Zangeese as he stormed across our ranks. "So you candy-assed mommasboys have got to ask yourselves one question, are you ready to kill today?"

"Yeah!" came a lone cheer from behind the Marshall.

The Marshall quickly darted towards the one Zangoose and gave him a pummeling blow to the temple, spilling him onto the dirt. "You will speak when spoken directly to, Shirley-boy. If you were any more of a man, you just might be a sorry excuse for a pile of crap, if you tried!" the Marshall roared, turning around again and resuming his journey before stopping directly in front of me. "Now you're Mac's kid, ain'tcha?"

I wanted to say the standard sir yes sir, but my jaw was frozen in place with fear.

The Marshall frowned. "Where's your fuckin' brain, kid?" he sneered, leering in my face.

"Siryessir!" I squeaked.

"Tauros-shit!" the Marshall swore. "What did you say?"

"Sir yes sir!" I roared back, squeezing my eyes shut and hoping I didn't sound too confrontational.

"That's better," The Marshall snarled, moving on to the end of the assembly while raving and swearing like the saltiest Sharpeedo.

Suddenly, a faint hiss echoed over the wheat field. Our fur stood on end on instinct, while our Marshall only laughed. "You hear that, rookies?" He barked, "That's the sound of slimly, slithery, shit-lickin' Seviper in the air. Company ready?"

We all stood as stiff as sticks.

"Forward march!"

Without a second thought, I was marching on the front line through the tall wheat field as a strong, musky scent filled my nostrils. It was the scent of Sevipers, and lots of them, too. Was I scared? A little, yeah, but this was our turf, and we outnumbered them. And even if our party was being beaten, we had hundreds of other Zangeese back in the burrows that were all just itching for a fight. The idiots thought that our underground community was another mile or so north from here, and we were about to set them straight.

"Halt!" our Marshall barked, stopping us dead in our tracks. "Defense circle formation!" Immediately, the square shape of our band tightened back-to-back to form a perfect circle, with eyes on all sides to prevent an ambush. We could all see over the tops of the wheat, and the slight rustling of the sprouts in the distance from the Sevipers slithering closer and closer to us, obscured from sight. "Here they come," our Marshall murmured. "On my mark, men. Three…"

I spread my claws.

"Two…"

I crouched slightly, ready to spring forward.

"One…"

My teeth clenched.

"Mark!"

Almost immediately, a rush of black figures shot from the wheat around us at all angles. I lunged forward and slashed away with my claws blindly, hoping to hit something as all hell broke loose around me. I took a wild downward slash at the first Seviper I saw when I could finally see straight again, shredding his throat in a spray of blood. At that point, I had no idea what I had done- the frenzy had already taken hold of my senses to the point that my brain and body were acting on their own accord. I slashed one Seviper, and quickly darted over to the next one I saw, not even wondering if I had cut deep enough as I hacked away at whatever moved.

Suddenly, just as I was turning around a black blur shot from beside me and attached itself to my left arm. The Seviper on my forearm's fangs sunk firmly into my flesh as I let out an agonized scream. The Seviper's tail blade came swinging for my skull, and would have split my head open had I not caught it by the base with my free hand. We struggled violently for control over the other, staggering all over the field as the Seviper's fangs sunk deeper into me. Although our genetics made Zangeese immune to poison, I could feel my steady blood loss take its toll on me. My vision began to blur, and every sound of the chaos around me became watery and drowned out. The Seviper's tail managed to squirm free of my grasp, and it came down again for the center of my face. I shot my hand up again, this time grazing the inside of the Seviper's tail. The Seviper shrieked in pain, unwittingly releasing me. As soon as I could sense the extra weight off of my arm, I pounced on top of the Seviper and raised my good arm to deliver a fatal slash to the throat.

Just as I was about to slice the Seviper's head off, a violent rumbling came from below the ground. Before I knew what was happening, the ground behind the Seviper and I exploded, and out came a gigantic rock Pokemon, Onix. Every Pokemon on the wheat field was struck with terror, freezing immediately as the Onix fully extended himself and unleashed an ear-splitting roar into the sky. I was so taken by bewilderment that I had allowed the Seviper to regain control over me, flipping me onto my back and lunging downward with agape jaws. Luckily, I held the Seviper firmly around the throat with my good right arm, keeping those fangs from plunging into my face. Using my advantage of leg power, I pinned the Seviper again as the Onix rocketed out of his burrow and plowed through the field in a rage, anchoring the Seviper in place with my bloody left arm and preparing to strike with my right.

Suddenly, the ground below us gave away, and the Seviper and I found ourselves plummeting thorough the tunnel that the Onix had left behind. We tumbled downwards for what seemed to be hours, eventually rolling out onto a rocky, desert-like badland. The Seviper and I bounced over the edge of a cliff, with the Seviper quick to anchor those red fangs into the tip of the cliff while I grabbed onto the base of the blade-like tail. The Seviper squawked and squirmed, trying to shake me off into the abyss below, but I tenaciously held on with only my right hand as I felt my left going numb from blood loss. "Let go!" The Seviper hissed with a mouthful of rock.

"No!" I screamed back.

"Let go let go let go!" The Seviper snarled, squirming frantically as I tightened my grip.

It wasn't until I had regained my sense of smell that I found a distinctive odor pass though my nostrils. "You-!" I gasped between breaths, "You're a girl?"

The Seviper hissed back at me. "What of it?" She snarled as her fangs' grip on the cliff began to slip.

"Nothing!" I roared back, wondering why I had to blurt that out. "Pull us up or we'll both die!" The Seviper muttered spitefully to herself before she re-fitted her grip on the cliff and pulled us both up onto the surface with amazing strength I never thought Sevipers had.

We both lay sprawled out on the rocky cliff, trying to catch our breath before the other's battered and exhausted body could. When I could finally control my breathing, the Seviper was lunging at me again, with me somehow finding the intuition to shoot my right hand up and catch her by the throat again. I wasn't fast enough this time though, as she could still stretch her neck down lower than before and sink her fangs into my neck. With whatever feeling still remained in my left arm, I stuck my hand on her lower jaw and quickly slipped my right onto her upper palette, prying her jaws open as she forced herself down upon me. Once again we were locked in a struggle for survival, and things were not looking good me now.

Suddenly, that same rumbling shook the ground again. We both looked upwards in time to see the same Onix hovering above us, roaring in a blinded rage. Before the Onix could thrust forward upon us, the cliff crumbled under our combined weight, sending all three of us plummeting…


	2. Chapter 2

Tooth and Claw

Ch. 2

I awoke with a dull throbbing pounding on the insides of my skull. Arid, dusty air began to seep into my lungs as I sat up, feeling the rocky ground scratch my stubby legs. The first thing I saw when I opened my weary eyes were two piercing red eyes glaring back at me in the darkness. "Shit!" I screamed, throwing my arms up to slash at the menacing leer.

I was suddenly aware of an intense pain in my left wrist, falling backwards in my frenzy and rolling onto my left side to protect my injury. "Will you shut up?" A familiar voice hissed angrily at me.

Looking over my shoulder, I saw the Seviper that I had been fighiting looming over me, occasionally glancing at my bloody wrist. Although what puzzled me the most was why she wasn't tearing me to scraps, I murmured, "What happened?"

The Seviper grumbled and briefly glanced behind her before turning back to me. "We've been caved in," she said at length.

I looked around at my surroundings, and found both the Seviper and I to be trapped in a small hollow of what appeared to be an encasing of rock, our little bubble lit only by the fading glow of the Seviper's Glare. Finally gathering my wits about me, I asked, "And why haven't you killed me yet?"

My answer was a quick swat to the back of the head with the blunt end of her tail. "What the hell do you think, dummy?" she sneered. "I can't dig myself out of here, but you can."

It connected.

"So," I grinned, "you need my help, do you?"

"Stop wasting air and get digging," she ordered.

I sat up, crossed my legs, and pouted. "Ask me nicely, first."

Her lower eyelid twitched. "Move it!" She roared.

"That's not asking nicely," I sneered, thoroughly enjoying myself.

"Dig, damn you! Now!"

"What's the magic word?"

The Seviper suddenly whipped around her tail to plunge into my chest, but stopped herself halfway through her thought. Sensing awkwardness, she growled, "Dig or I'll kill you."

I laughed out loud, listening to her fume. "Oh, we could be here for a long time, huh?"

The Seviper was growing short of breath. "We don't have a long time, idiot!" She snarled. "When we run out of air-!"

"You're cold-blooded, aren't you?"

My question stopped her immediately. "S-so?" She finally stammered after a brief silence.

"Dad told me that cold-blooded Pokemon need heat to stay alive." At this point, I couldn't determine whether or not her violent shivering was from anger or from her body heat dropping. "You're the one without much time, aren't you?"

She only continued to glare at me.

"Well?" I prodded.

The Seviper hung her head in defeat. "Please," she murmured shamefully.

"Please what?"

She grumbled under her breath. "Please dig us out of here."

I stood, and stretched my good arm. "That's better," I said, strolling over to a wall and starting to hack away with my claws.

I had tunneled upwards through the rock and dirt for what seemed to be forever before I had finally struck light on the other side. As soon as I crawled onto the sunny surface, the Seviper shot out of the hole behind me and sprawled out on the rocky plateau, eagerly soaking up the sunlight. A primal urge to strike in the moment of her weakness made my claws twitch, but some other opposing force within me stayed my hand. This was the first time I've ever saved a life, of a Seviper, no less. I could have launched a fatal attack- I wanted to attack, but something held me back. Suddenly, it dawned on me that I had just defied the very nature of my species, breaking a chain thousands, or millions, of generations long. Not to mention just an overall good feeling I had.

Or maybe it was because no matter how long we were down there, with my bad arm she would have easily killed me if I tried to attack. I guess either excuse works.

Taking a moment to look around, I found myself to be standing beside a wall of a very deep canyon, the top of which seemed to stretch upwards for miles. It was a definite far cry from what I knew was home. I could be wandering around here for days or months trying to get back. Maybe she, that Seviper, knew where we were. As soon as I stepped forward to ask, the Seviper whipped around and drove her forehead into my chest, knocking me to the ground. With her jaws opened wide, she lunged at my face again. Before I knew it I had thrown my injured left arm up, screaming as her teeth sank into it once more. "Now where were we?" She hissed a laugh, tightening her grip on my bloody wrist. I tried to push against her snout with my right, but her strength was somehow overpowering. Those two large venomous fangs kept coming closer and close to my forehead, and in a few seconds she would be feasting on my gray matter.

Suddenly, her grip loosened, and her jaws dropped my limp arm. She was staring upwards at something, her eyes wide open. Knowing that this was the best chance at a counter attack I would get, I arched the claws on my right hand, pawing her square on the snout and knocking her off of me. In a flash I bolted upright, and threw my weight on her without a moment of hesitation. Holding her head in place with my weak left hand, I raised my right arm to gouge out her back-stabbing eyes. They were still wide open, staring right through me with what looked like a feeling of horror. A large shadow suddenly cast itself over both of us, and I suddenly realized what it was that made her freeze.

I dove off of her and to my right, just as a wall of boulders came crashing down, kicking up a cloud of dirt. As the dust settled, I looked up to see the same enraged Onix who had brought us down here glaring at me. The Onix reared up, gave an ear-piercing roar, and slammed his body down at me again. I somehow managed to dive out of harm's way in time, picking myself up to see the Onix suddenly writhe in pain. The Seviper had coiled herself around the Onix's body, and was steadily chipping away at its rock-like skin with her fangs. Deciding that the Onix was a much bigger threat to me than the Seviper, I wrangled him around the neck, and began hacking away at the back of his head with my claws. The Onix roared and thrashed about, trying desperately to throw us off. I dug my right-hand claws into the crack of two of the Onix's segments, latching myself firmly to him as he whipped his body around in frenzy. Feeling my left arm starting to go numb, I tried as hard as I could to keep attacking the side of the Onix's face with my claws, but it looked like I was just annoying rather than actually hurting him. My grip on his body slipped a little, and I knew that he felt it too- his thrashing suddenly became much more violent. I was suddenly hanging on for dear life with both arms, trying in vain to wrap my stubby little legs around his body for extra grip. If a fall from this height didn't kill me, being crushed by his immense body would. Just as I felt that I was hanging on by just one claw, the Onix abruptly froze, gave a long-winded moan, and collapsed to the ground with me on top. "Yeah!" I jeered, smacking the Onix's lifeless head with my paw, "How's that?"

"Ah, shut up," I heard the Seviper hiss from behind me, her fangs dripping a steady dribble of venom.

I looked back at the Onix. He wasn't moving at all. "Is he-?" I asked.

"Should be," the Seviper muttered, slithering off of the Onix, "I don't think I've ever pumped anything so full of venom before."

I weakly dismounted the Onix, turning to face the Seviper. "So what now?" I snarled, "Are you going to wait until my back's turned?"

The Seviper gave a long tired sigh, and collapsed onto her side. "Too tired," she moaned.

I plopped down, and stretched out on my back. "Me too."

We lay motionless for what seemed to be hours before the Seviper spoke again. "So, where are we?"

"Don't you know?" I asked.

"Why would I be asking?" she sneered back.

I rolled my eyes. She was pretty touchy. "My name's Zim, by the way."

"So?" She asked.

"I just thought we should know each other's names," I said, "if we're going to find a way home."

"What's this about 'we?'" she hissed.

"There could be more Onixes around, don't you think?"

There was a long pause before she answered, "All right, I won't kill you," she said. "Yet."

"Likewise," I murmured, yawning a little before rolling onto my side and closing my eyes.


End file.
